BOSTON—It’s not every day you get the chance to launch an entirely new network, but that’s the opportunity we were given at Lax Sports Network (LSN). Our OTT network debuted in January 2016 with a singular mission: to transform the lacrosse landscape with our 24-hour digital media network dedicated to lacrosse fans.

Lacrosse currently stands as the fastest growing team sport in the United States. With Boston-based LSN we believe we can amplify the game, providing coverage, news and analysis on professional, college and high school competition for men and women, and more.

The newly launched Lax Sports Network utilizes four Ikegami HC-HD300 cameras.CUE THE CAMERAS We’re set to produce live coverage of more than 100 games in 2016, but 100 games only gets you so far when you’re on the air 24/7, 365 days a year. We knew we needed a robust studio to be at the center of it all, so one of the first things we did was select Little Bay Broadcast Services to be our technical advisor and oversee the buildout for our facility.

Early on, it pointed us toward Ikegami for cameras. Ikegami let me know that I was important right from the beginning, and its salespeople put a lot of time into answering my questions. The company understood that I needed something on budget, that it needed to be easy to use and maintain, but that it also had to have broadcast quality. As an OTT network, LSN lives and dies by the subscriber, and the camera provides the window that they look in to see the content that we’re producing.

The answer was the Ikegami HCHD300 Full Digital HDTV Camera System. We purchased four of them, and the image quality is outstanding—the colors really pop when shaded correctly. Just as important is the ease of use; the responsiveness of the controls is very impressive.

The performance of these cameras has already got us looking forward to our next development, which will be building a jib. We know that putting an Ikegami camera on that jib will take our studio production to the next level; being able to go up, down, and around with the HC-HD300 will give our in-studio shows some additional movement.

UP TO THE TASK The challenge in launching an OTT network is to develop a relationship with our viewers and let them know that their loyalty will be rewarded by the amount of entertainment and information value in the dollars that they spend with us. As a result, it’s extremely important that the types of technologies we consider be of the best quality.

That all starts with the quality of our cameras, because that’s the portal for viewers to see what we work on so diligently for them to enjoy. Out of all the investments that we’ve made—and the investment in our facility has been considerable— our Ikegami HC-HD300 cameras are among the most important.

Sports are a team effort, and SNY has brought in some new additions to its production team with eight Ikegami HDK-95C full digital portable CMOS cameras and give HDL-57 companion POV cameras to its Manhattan studios.